Monday, March 13, 2017

The Belko Experiment

He's responsible for Slither, for Super, and for the re-imagining of Dawn of the Dead (a major personal favorite), among many others, not the least of which are both of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which I'm sure you'll recall... I'm a bit of a fan. His work is funny and smart and silly and dirty and bloody as hell, all the things you need for a good time at the movies, and, at least according to the trailer, all the things you'll find in today's film: The Belko Experiment.

I'm not familiar with Greg McLean's work. He's the Director. He's done a lot of horror stuff from the look of it, and I think I remember people saying that they liked the Wolf Creek stuff, so maybe he's good. Personally, I would assume he's pretty good, as Gunn seems to work with good people. Plus, he made this after coming off the Guardians of the Galaxy win, so it's not like he didn't have options.

It doesn't really matter, either way, I'm a fan of Gunn's work, so I'm interested in this.

Here's the synopsis: In a twisted social experiment, 80 Americans are locked in
their high-rise corporate office in Bogotá, Colombia and ordered by an unknown
voice coming from the company's intercom system to participate in a deadly game
of kill or be killed.

Sounds good to me. Plus, thanks to this synopsis, the fact that it's set in another country goes a long way towards smoothing over the one concern I had with the idea, and that was that this thing appears to be happening in apparent isolation, or at least with the Government's cooperation, and I couldn't see that quite working in America, although now we're in Trump's Amerikkka, so maybe it's a moot point... Whatever. Either way, I'm good.

Also, this may be complete nonsense, because I don't know if the two films are similar in any way or not, but the synopsis and tone really put me in mind of the movie Cabin in the Woods, and that's always a good thing...

Let's watch.

Relatable, amirite?

So, yeah, there's a definite Battle Royale feel going on here, but that's understandable. That particular set-up is a good formula for human drama: Take a bunch of ordinary people, lock them in some place, and tell them they all have to kill each other in order to survive. Will they comply? Will they resist? Who will be the first to take that big step? Who will hold onto their humanity? Who will live? Who will die? You get multiple layers of tension as the characters all respond in different ways, and no matter what, eventually... you get a bunch of carnage too. And like I said, that's really all you need in a good movie, right?

Published Work

Now you can get all the short stories published this year through the Onyx Neon Shorts Imprint, at a fraction of the cost, plus a lot of new content too. This collection not only includes my short story Harris, but a new one as well. It's called Billy Torch takes a Beating.